


Its Own Reward

by fangirl_squee



Series: homies help homies, always [38]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:27:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every two years the university holds a week-long sporting competition, with a variety of prizes involved. Enjolras is in it to win. Grantaire is in it because Marius asked him to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Its Own Reward

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about sports, hopefully I have not made too many grave sports errors. Thanks to Adri, who lets me ramble about HHHA!Grantaire at her, and to Beth, for her amazing beta-ing.
> 
> This is sort of a companion piece to ‘Hidden Talents’.

 

Normally, Enjolras isn’t really one for sports. He’d enjoyed the teamwork and organisation involved in baseball in high school, but he’d really only participated because his guidance counsellor had told him he needed it for his transcript. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t had _fun_ , but he certainly hadn’t been inspired to prioritise it over getting petitions signed or working on his application essays.

 

That being said, he is excited for the University’s sports week. Every two years the university holds a week-long sporting competition, with a variety of prizes involved. Most are small - DVDs and dinner vouchers - but the first and second prizes are money. If Les Amis wins either of those, it will cover the printing costs for their next rally.

 

Most of Les Amis are participating, although Bossuet has excused himself from being involved, citing his last sporting accident (it hadn’t been on the field - he’d tripped over a rack of sports equipment and broken his wrist), and Joly won’t have time to train _and_ study for his upcoming medical exams, which puts him out of the competition as well.

 

Enjolras’ team consists of Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Cosette, and Feuilly –  although, as Combeferre starts to organise their competitions around their class schedules, Enjolras can hears the others start to form a secondary team. The rules state you need a team of five to compete - Bahorel, Eponine, Jehan, and Marius have already signed up.

 

“We’re still one man short for our team,” says Eponine.

 

Marius pokes Grantaire’s side. Grantaire has been oddly quiet, looking vaguely amused at their enthusiasm but otherwise keeping out of the discussion.

 

Grantaire sighs dramatically. “What do you need me to do?”

 

“We need one more person to be able to do the baton race, and for team things like ultimate Frisbee,” says Eponine, looking over the list.

 

“Please?” Marius says, drawing the word out, his tone wheedling. “I know you’ll be good at it.”

 

Grantaire grins, stretching lazily on his seat in the back. “Sure, why not? I mean if you’re desperate enough to ask me you must _really_ need the person on your team.”

 

For some reason that makes Marius laugh. “But you’re the best man for the job!”

 

Grantaire rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling. Marius starts talking enthusiastically about what areas they can compete in and this time Grantaire does get involved in the conversation. Enjolras gets caught up talking through how they’ll work around their class schedules, but when he looks over, Grantaire and Bahorel are laughing together as Grantaire points to something on the signup sheet, and Marius excitedly scribbles something down.

 

Enjolras almost wishes Grantaire was on his team. But even if they _did_ need another member, Enjolras needs his team enthusiastic and, more importantly, _focused_ on the task at hand, so it probably is a terrible idea. Apart from wrestling with Bahorel, he’s never heard Grantaire mention any interest in sports, and Enjolras already knows how unenthusiastic he is about doing anything on behalf of Les Amis – and he wants to focus on winning, not arguing with Grantaire.

 

 

Enjolras doesn’t really get a chance to see how the others are doing, but he does check the scores online. Although his team hasn’t won everything they’ve entered, they’re still doing quite well overall. It’s a points-based system, with the more “serious” sports (like soccer, or baseball) getting more points than the fun side games (like hula hooping or ultimate frisbee). They’d decided that, since they were all low on free time, they’d only compete in the sports that could bring in the most points, which seemed to be giving them a slight edge over the other groups who’d gone for a mixture.

 

He’s surprised at how well the other Les Amis group is doing, running only a few places behind them in the online tally. By mid-week they’ve done quite a few of the smaller “for fun” events, mixed with a few of the more serious ones. It surprises him somewhat to see wrestling, volleyball, and a few track and field events sprinkled in amongst juggling and light-sabre fencing.

 

He can only assume that it’s Eponine’s competitive streak coming out, and the wrestling is probably Bahorel’s doing. When he manages to get a night free for dinner with Grantaire, Grantaire still seems apathetic about it.

 

“We’ll do all right. I mean it’s really more about enjoying ourselves,” says Grantaire, shrugging his shoulders. “We’re only doing a couple of the serious team sports things and the baton race across campus.”

 

“Oh, we were going to do that one,” says Enjolras, “but my class only gets out during the last part, and Cosette has a class right in the middle, so we didn’t have enough people.”

 

Grantaire taps his plastic fork against the plate. “So, I guess you’d be to too busy to – never mind, it’s dumb.”

 

“No, tell me,” says Enjolras.

 

“Well, I was going to say you could come watch the final lap after class? I mean, we’ll be going all over the school but the last leg of it is the oval – but you totally don’t have to,” says Grantaire, “I mean, you’re really busy right now, and I don’t want to mess up your schedule by making you watch me, I mean, watch us run around in a circle –”

 

Enjolras leans over the table, cutting off the quick-paced nervous speech with a kiss (he’s discovered that it’s something he quite enjoys doing). They break apart after a moment and Grantaire looks a little flushed, but the tension is gone from his shoulders.

 

“I would love to come and watch you run around in a circle,” Enjolras says seriously.

 

Grantaire smiles, and it lights up his whole face (Enjolras has discovered he quite enjoys that too).

 

 

Enjolras barely has time to get to his own sports competitions, let alone go and watch the others, but he does get sporadic reports from the others when they meet up in-between classes or before competitions. Combeferre and Feuilly go to cheer the others on during the wrestling competition, which the others apparently win by a mile.

 

“It almost felt unfair,” says Feuilly afterwards.

 

Cosette laughs. “If you think that was unfair, you should have seen Grantaire during that light sabre competition. I think he could have taken them all on single-handedly. Marius said he used to do fencing in high school.”

 

“Did he?” says Enjolras.

 

Cosette hums, distracted as she highlights class notes. “Marius said he won something for it. Some competition thing. I think Jehan put a video of the light sabre thing on Facebook if you wanted to see.”

 

Enjolras absolutely does _not_ drop his phone in his haste to get it out of his pocket to see the video, and he definitely _isn’t_ distracted the rest of the day by the memory of the grainy footage of Grantaire, sweaty and triumphant. And if Cosette says any different, she’s lying.

 

He doesn’t get a chance to see Grantaire competing in person until the baton race. It’s one of the longest events, with the groups running all over the campus. Some of them run past him as he makes his way to the oval, the race’s final stage. Since this is one of the competition’s larger events, they’ve scheduled the ending between classes, and the crowd is a lot larger than it has been at the other events.

 

Grantaire and Marius are already waiting on the oval. Marius, who is apparently running the home stretch, shifts from one leg to the other. Grantaire looks far more relaxed, waving cheerfully to Enjolras as he joins the rest of les Amis on the sidelines. He’s obviously already done a large stretch of the running, his thin t-shirt sticking to his body. Enjolras tries not to stare.

 

Jehan and Bahorel, who have finished their stretch of the race, lean on the railing next to Enjolras. Tendrils of hair have escaped Jehan’s braid, and they’re both covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

 

“I think we’re somewhere close to the front,” says Bahorel, after he gulps down some of the water.

 

Jehan nods, leaning on the railing and waving to Grantaire Marius. Courfeyrac hands him a water bottle and he gratefully accepts.

 

The crowd starts cheering and Enjolras can see the first few runners come onto the oval, Eponine amongst them. Grantaire’s face takes on a more focused look as he takes the baton from her, moving gracefully across the field to overtake several other runners. The crowd around them roars with excitement, and Enjolras gets swept up along with them, cheering as Grantaire runs neck-and-neck with the remaining one.

 

The baton change goes smoothly - Marius grabs it, running faster even than Grantaire. It’s still neck and neck as they come up to the final marker, and it’s a good thing they’ve got a spot next to the railing otherwise Cosette would be falling into the track. She’s leaning as far out as she can, waving her scarf as she cheers Marius on.

 

Marius and the other runner are level until they’re only a few meters from the finish line. Enjolras think Cosette might be about to explode from excitement as Marius is pulls away from the other runner, a burst of speed pushing him over finish line in a second.

 

Marius looks stunned as they announce his team as the winners, before Grantaire tackle-hugs him to the ground. Cosette runs over to congratulate them, with the rest of Les Amis following behind her.

 

Grantaire is laughing from his position on the ground, and Marius pulls him up. “You were basically flying!”

 

“I just imagined that there were people chasing me,” says Marius.

 

They grin at each other until Cosette pulls Marius away, and Grantaire turns to Enjolras. Enjolras’ gaze follows a drop of sweat as it runs down Grantaire’s neck before it comes back up to his face.

 

“I’d kiss you but I am seriously gross right now,” says Grantaire.

 

“I seriously don’t care,” says Enjolras, leaning in.

 

Grantaire is sweaty where Enjolras presses against him, but Enjolras doesn’t mind. Bahorel and Courfeyrac cat call until Enjolras gives them the finger.

 

Grantaire huffs a laugh when they break apart. “What was all that about?”

 

Enjolras tangles their fingers together. Grantaire’s hands are very warm, and a little damp. “I didn’t know you were so good at sports, it’s very impressive.”

 

Grantaire smiles, looking oddly shy.

 

Les Amis place second overall. When Enjolras steps forward to accept their award Grantaire applauds from the front of the crowd, and Enjolras has never felt happier about winning second place.

 

 

(Courfeyrac organises an after-party at the university dorms. It’s pretty standard Courfeyrac stuff – loud music, alcohol, and hundreds of people (all of whom Courfeyrac knows by name). Marius needs a break from it a couple of hours in, which is also pretty standard for him during one of Courfeyrac’s parties. He makes his way through the crowd of people to the door, stepping into the cool night air.

 

Grantaire is sitting on the steps outside, his breath forming clouds of steam as he turns the small trophy from the baton race around in his hands. Marius sits down on the steps next to him.

 

“See,” says Marius after a moment, bumping his shoulder against Grantaire, “I told you that you were the best man for the job.”

 

Grantaire grins back at him. “You didn’t do too badly yourself.”

 

They sit together, looking out over the campus dorms, until Cosette drags them both back inside to dance.)

 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is always loved: fangirl-squee.tumblr.com/ask


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